


Empires of Brick and Blood

by symphonic__chaos



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alec isn't all right, Alternate Universe - Repo! The Genetic Opera Fusion, Blood, Bottom Magnus, Desk Sex, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Fights, Frenemies, M/M, Marking, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, Multi, Public Sex, Rough Sex, Tattoos, Top Alec, Wall Sex, We love him anyway, frienemies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-06-02 06:38:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19435963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/symphonic__chaos/pseuds/symphonic__chaos
Summary: Shadowhunters meets Repo!The Genetic Opera.An AU set in a post-apocalyptic like world where the last of the Largo family has finally fallen. The Lightwoods are here to clean up their mess, the eldest son Alec set on starting with the local famous dealer, Bane.





	1. The Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be a long, action packed one eventually. A bit of an emotional rollercoaster, so hold on. 
> 
> I have a playlist made for this couple, it's what I listen to for inspiration. I add to it daily depending on where their relationship is going, as I'm already pretty far along in mind about the chapters and outcomes.
> 
> [ Spotify Playlist Here ](https://open.spotify.com/user/shaybb88/playlist/3Rg69Q9PEAgIbMhdJ8B7HU?si=ttanGBL3TwKBzFAiHQ2hAA)

" ** _Magnus Bane._** "

The words echoed through every unoccupied space in the city, through each junkie filled alley, through windows that were open in hopes for cool air to combat the sweltering heat, into the sewer where rats that were once cat size were now dinner plates. So booming that it could have been a victorious combatant against the thunder that threatened to rumble in the sky. It had been just twenty minutes before it had filled with brownish green cumulonimbus clouds, ready to spill their clean drops into their filth filled city.

The sudden clink of metal against faux porcelain came to follow as the owner of that name paused his antics of shoveling the stew into his mouth, already late to several 'appointments'. A single dark eye darted up to the chef in front of him, paused behind the large metal counter, before he spun in the chair to look at the open space behind him. Druggies waiting for him, a limousine headed into the town center just a few minutes away, a few merchants lurking for easy prey to fall to their inner-coat 'rare' deals.

"...Did you--" The confused man started to call back to the chef, only silenced as the deep voice began its echoing speech.

" _You're a dealer. An urchin among the others on the street, but the most poisonous one of them all. You've slipped through lazy fingers for too long and, now that my family is here, this reign on the Downworlders is going to end._ "

Interesting. 

Credits clinked on the counter as Bane's pierced tongue swept over the slit between his canine and premolar, a tsk following as he felt a bit of the fake meat trapped there. Gloved hands reached behind the counter and felt around until his fingers curled around the toothpicks there, one tugged out and used before the piece was spit aside and the toothpick rested between his lips. The loud voice was going on and on, something about him being a killer ( _wrong_ ), reckless ( _closer to the truth_ ), and how he lived up to his name, being a _Bane_ to their city. That part had him chuckling as he stepped out from under the protective metal roof, trying to find which speaker this man's voice was coming out of. 

A familiar blue haired junkie that was ever devoted to him pointed upwards towards the large, hovering, blimp-like contraption flying through the air, the large screen on the side revealing the most striking natural blue eyes Bane had ever seen. They rivaled Zydrate in every way, serious and deadly, but a hint of something that promised so much more. A rarity these days, most people after all their surgeries and genetics had either crazy impossible colors, or dark eyes like his own eye. That one eye narrowed as he focused again on the male, who had shifted from leaning back against the high-backed chair to instead fold his arms on the desk, his head leaning towards them as he came closer to the camera that had been placed unflattering angle. Until now.

Goosebumps littered the tan skin hidden by layers of shirts and jackets as a grin spread across the man's lips, perfect white teeth that screamed of money and power. Like a mouse cornered by a large cat, Bane didn't move from the spot. Though his dark hair, buzzed at the sides and a long mane down its center, was neatly pulled up into a mixture of a mohawk that trailed into a braid, his sidebangs betrayed the cat eye hidden beneath them with the slightest gust of the breeze going by. 

" _My name is Alec Lightwood, Bane, and I will find you, personally. I will hunt you down. I will have eyes everywhere, and I will be one step behind you until I'm one step ahead. You can't get away from me._ "

Bane swallowed thickly at this threat, he knew that every single inch of him should be terrified by the threat of a new person who seemed to be putting his all into catching him, unlike the last guards he paid off. Being the last living Largo had its perks when it came to the old surviving repo men and guards that once loyally served his family, but the two faces this 'Alec' had behind him drew a blank.

The terror that should have been there was... excitement. Slight arousal, perhaps, but mostly it sent adrenaline rushing through him. A laugh began rumbling in Bane's chest before filling the air as he let himself go, let that rush go straight through him with a shake of his hair to return the bangs to their place, hidden from the guards lurking the streets. 

"Alec Lightwood. Pretty boy. Magnus Bane, an immense pleasure to meet you. I look forward to this chase and I wish you the best of luck." Bane called out to the blimp as the screen went dark, his body bending as he bowed in a mocking _adieu_. 

The blue haired junkie sidled up to him, slipping under one of his arms as her quiet, nervous voice rang like sweet honey in his ears.

"Do you think he'll get ya, Bane?"

"Maybe," Bane hummed, his arm slipping around her shoulders as he pulled her into a side hug, his lips pressing against her forehead. "But not without some good chases and fights, hm?" 

The worry was clear on her face, but it seemed a good enough answer for her as a smile crossed her face, her small hand curling around his larger as she tugged him towards the nearby alley. 

"Come on, come on, we're all waiting for you. Some of 'em are getting really bad and need your fix. They're here from Striker."

_Striker_. Now if there was anyone that Alec should have wasted his time on, it was that lousy sack of shit, the one who didn't care if he was poisoning or killing his clients with his tainted Zydrate. Not as long as the credits were tucked firmly into his greedy pocket, first.

"Alright, chickpea. Lead the way."


	2. Vēnor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec Lightwood is the type to get what he wants when he wants it, whether it takes money, hard work, or blood, sweat, and tears. Having something slip through his fingers so many times is infuriating- but he won't give up.
> 
> This chapter is set to the song:  
> [Kill Of The Night - Gin Wigmore](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGju9VaQuyg)

Alexander Lightwood- Alec, as most called him to his preference, was what some could possibly call... Neurotic. 

If you asked him, it was an understatement, what with the amount of stress he'd accrued seeing the state of Brooklyn once the Largo's had lost their last clawed grip on it. Chaos caused in city's across the country due to Repo men that hadn't been reigned in and let their power get to their heads, by greed within the Largo family that had only grown as the line went on. At the same time, he would correct you because, while falling into this seeming leadership position his parents placed on him had been unexpected and daunting, his stumble had turned into stride. Now, if he was truly labeled by those who knew him best, they would find authoritative fit Alexander Lightwood the best. 

The great grandson of the Largo heiress Amber Sweet, who started the line of destruction after passing the business to her one-night stands bastard child from the man known as Graverobber, had followed on in his family's footsteps. Keeping the business going, though with what Alec found through articles and paperwork from the labs, the man was surprisingly trying to turn things around. Maybe even had a better head on his shoulders than the rest of them, which no doubt had to come from the side of whomever married into the Largo family. 

Though he married, they never bore a child into the line, as their only pregnancy ended with a miscarriage. With a wheeze and a groan at a ripe age of 97, the eldest and last remaining member of the tyrant family had croaked their last order to whomever became their predecessor: Find him. He is your key.

What they had failed to mention was who 'him' was, why he needed to be found and, Alec didn't know, maybe a hint to where he was. 

It seemed his sister, Isabelle, was more interested in the nightlife around the city more than actually helping him go through mountains of neglected paperwork or to find him, and his mother was busy recruiting guards and tossing money at previously corrupted repo men to get them to join their forces. Robert... Was somewhere, as always, causing mayhem and anxiety in anyone near him. It had been his money that elbowed them into the large secondary headquarters of the Largo's, currently in the heart of New York, whereas the original having been in California. The youngest of the Lightwoods, Max, was away at some elite boarding school, always out of the way of his parents and their work-induced, steamrolling habits. Once their parents had taken over the colossal task of taking on the Largo estate, his father's words were simple as he headed out the door: 'The bills are stacking high and unpaid organ repossession is, and now will always be, the key. I'll be back once I'm done.'

~

"Split up. Two men together at all times, you all know Bane fights back." 

Alec gave a pointed look at a nearby guard sporting a black eye and busted lip to accentuate his words. Pointing to the alleys he wanted covered on a map of areas they'd swept and had yet to, they were all soon on their way to their respectively given locations. Handing the map to the driver that would wait in the car, Alec ran his hands along his belt, nodding to himself as he confirmed he had all of his gear, his boots crunching on a broken bottle on the sidewalk as he headed for his own alley.

"No, I go alone. It's personal at this point." 

The two guards that went to follow Alec looked shocked by the command, hesitant, but they soon split to go down the adjacent alley, quietly conversing with each other that they weren't sure what made him feel so invincible. 

Truth be told, nothing made him feel invincible. What fueled him to believe he could go alone after this little rat that continuously slipped between their fingers was nothing but pure rage and a will to win. It had been five months since he'd proclaimed his hunting party on the drug dealer, five months of trying to get anonymous tips on where he was, five months of dropping everything to rush to a location where guards swore up and down that they had him only to have some random junkie that looked nothing like him. 

Five. Fucking. Months of seeing that smug face, that little wave of polished fingers as he paused on a buildings fire escape ladder, fifty feet above Alec, mid-rush to get away from him.

There had been times, of course, when he'd had him. Truly had him in his grip, an arm or his jacket between his fingers, knuckles white from his hold. 

Once time he'd even been in a fist fight with him, the one time Alec had learned just how much of a fighter Bane was, as though he'd been trained to fight this way. It made sense considering he was a street urchin, all that lived on these streets at the threat of being robbed or jumped, or even at risk of a repossession, they had all found ways that worked best for them to protect themselves. While most used weapons, Bane was certainly no exception here, though his weapons were certainly his fists and smart. Security was crucial, what with the amount of Zydrate and money he likely carried on himself to appease the 'children' of the alleys, poisoning them, yet aiding the Lightwood's in slowing them down fast enough to repossess what was theirs according to the books. That likely wasn't part of his plans, but finders keepers as Robert said.

A long sigh was released when he was finally alone, his steps pausing at the beginning of the alleyway, his neck rolling slowly from side to side as he tried to mentally prepare himself. He was sure that after so long, tonight would be just as rage inducing as every night had been, though parts of him hoped for another one of those fights since it would at least be more entertaining than staring at junkies and dirty alleyways full of empty Zydrate vials and trash. 

"Get a quote on a cleaner for these alleys and the sidewalks." 

Alec sent the voice memo from his phone to Izzy as he walked, kicking a vial out of his way and making a face as a large rat ran by in the distance. All hopes of it being a cat were shot after the plague had gone through, one that strangely enough only affected cats with something akin to rabies, and could only be passed to humans the same way. While it made simple strays slowly turn vicious, striking out and even chasing down people that so much as looked at them wrong, it did something wholly different to the people that were attacked. 

Rabid was something vaguely simple of a term. It made them almost...superhuman. Some people gained strength that no one should have possessed, able to rip people limb to limb or tear doors off cars to get to those inside. There had been cases of people who gained a chameleon like affect, their skin could change to blend into their surroundings- something Alec had seen first hand when driving through a city during the height of it. Other people had, what they could only refer to as 'magic'. It was the closest thing possible, it was like the people could harness the air and the energy around them and use it to cause sheer chaos, inciting break-ins, deaths. All they had learned was that nothing good came from this plague, and it was treated as such. 

All cats found outdoors were killed. Everyone that owned a cat was immediately to register and bring it to a nearby clinic for it to be inspected for the disease, then given a shot that would prevent (or they hoped would) the disease from affecting them. If you were rich, you were lucky to keep your cat. Most of the lower class families weren't as lucky, as most of their cats were outdoor permitted. It wasn't unlikely to see them trotting alongside their owners in the alleys, or lounging in sunspots on the cars.

The humans that carried the disease were easy to spot, their eyes, ironically, all became colored with a slit pupil just like the cats that had infected them. Many of them drooled or struck out when approached too closely. Many had been captured and attempts to give them an antidote failed, so, just like their feline counterparts, they were put down as well. To see a mass culling of people had been traumatizing to many of the kids their age, putting fear into them of being next on that list.

It had been ten years since the incident and there hadn't been any cases in the past seven, something Alec was grateful for as he'd grown rather fond of his and his sisters cats, twin Maine Coon's that Robert had threatened to toss out to the vets to be euthanized far too many times. In reality, they just hated the man and hissed at him every time he passed due to the vile energy he put off, and the kids had learned to do whatever he ordered out of fear of his words. This had stuck even as they'd grown older, even at 26 and 24, to a point where they generally just avoided all eye contact with him and kept their eyes on the floor as they agreed to their duties. 

A shuffle to Alec's left had his attention turning from the giant rat, grown from years of a lack of upper food chain predators, to the billow of a trench coat disappearing behind the connected alley. Heavy boots stopped abruptly as his ears strained to listen for a voice or any hint of someone running, but the girls and guys that frequently passed through or sold themselves in the alley were too loud and drowning out everything he actually wanted to hear. His steps were quick to turn down the short connector between the two, the rancid smell of the dumpster filling the small area sided by two tall buildings and nearly making him gag. A look to his left confirmed what he'd seen, the long overcoat swaying behind the figure that hummed and walked nonchalantly away from him, a half eaten apple in hand. 

" _BANE!_ "

With that shout, the other figure paused mid-step, the apple slipping in his fingers despite the attempt to catch it, the thud of the fruit on the ground minimal against the echo of Alec's yell. 

"My apple!" Came the whine as the long-haired dealer looked down at it sadly, then turned to look at Alec. "You owe me an apple."

Alec was speechless. He... owed him an apple? A fucking apple? 

"I owe you shit, now get over here and come with me peacefully so you can finally go to trial and we can clean the streets of trash like you."

"First, Mr. Lightwood, that apple cost me _thirteen_ credits, not that a rich asshole like you would get how much that is. Second, I'll come with you," His eyes traveled up and down Alec's body as his wicked smile proved their words meant two completely different things, "but I do _nothing_ peacefully. And finally, I'm not trash. If anything I like to consider myself like a fine, vintage shop."

Alec merely stared, knowing his eyes were wide in disbelief that Bane was seriously... _flirting_ with him? While he was warning of an arrest? His lips parted as he began to form the words his mind was stewing together, but they soon shut as he inhaled deeply through his nose instead. _Gods, that dumpster, bad decision._ Alec stepped forward to get away from the mid-alley entrance before he vomited all over the ground in front of him and, with every step forward, Bane took one back with brief, forlorn looks given to his apple, as if giving it a silent goodbye.

"I... You're dead. I'm just going to kill you and no one's going to know." Alec's threat seemed nonchalant, that disbelief still lingering in his tone. 

Much to Alec's dismay, it brought a bright smile to Bane's face as his cuff-gloved hand rose, his fingers adorned with rings and nails painted as black as his jacket. Those fingers curled in towards his palm one by one, then out, and back in, beckoning him tauntingly. 

"Come on, Mr. Lightwood. I love a challenge. You're my favorite so far. Who else is blessed enough to have a hot guy so infatuated with them?"

"You son of a--" Alec dashed towards Bane as a delighted laughter rang through out the alley, the dealers feet carrying him along the dirt and asphalt. 

It was a chase that would end fruitless after just five short minutes, lost into an alleyway with an open door and a hand reaching out and motioning for Bane to hurry and run in. Alec panted as he stopped suddenly at the now locked door, his fist slamming on the cool metal as if the three little piggies would let in the wolf. Backing up, he gathered his energy and rushed the door with a frustrated yell, throwing his shoulder into it and successfully getting it to open, slamming against the wall of the hall within. 

"Apartments, corner of East 63rd and 1st." 

Alec's watch beeped after he passed along his whereabouts to the guards patrolling the nearby alleys. The black cylinder at his waist was removed from its clip, the button extending the weapon into its full length, the tip sparking briefly with electricity. A cattle prod, only adjusted to be more human tolerant. His favorite weapon he owned outside of his bow, much better for close range attacks, though he was considering taking to the roof's from now on and using the bow to hunt Bane down.

This fight had ceased to be a potential win now that Bane was hidden away, since knowing his ways through months of studying, Bane was either on the roof, or in one of the hundreds of apartments and going out through a window. 

"Keep an eye out all around the building out there, he won't be able to get far. Call in the backup, have them check every apartment. Feel free to bring a couple of the Repo guys, see if they match anyone they're missing on their lists. Check with Raphael, first, though. He'll let you know who he'll spare of the group."

Alec paced the hallway for a moment or two, listening for any sign of Bane's voice even though he knew the other would be remaining silent and waiting him out. That, more than anything else, frustrated Alec to no end. He sniffled and ran a hand through his hair as he tried to calm himself down, but another moment passed and soon his fist met the drywall of the hallway as a frustrated "FUCK!" rang through it. The door swung open as he pulled the knob and flung it aside, walking outside and shoving past the guards there.

"I'll be back at the office. Let me know if you find anything. Permission for no mercy."

Moments like these he knew he sounded like Robert, but time after time Izzy tried to assure him it was only because they were their own worst critics. That it was something ingrained in them by their father. But, if so, why was she always so carefree and sweet?

Alec found himself like his father more than he liked, and he hoped that he didn't pay for it some day. 


	3. Currere

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Bane centric chapter with a lot of focus on his past.
> 
> This chapter is set to the song:  
> [Rev 22:20 by Puscifer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4d4yB-cm6E)

Being hidden away was something that Bane had been used to his entire life. Since he was born, since the plague hit, the day his adoptive parents died to it, while he dealt drugs in the alley, and even when his real parents died. Always out of sight, always out of mind. He was taught it was always smart this way, it was the best way to keep attention off of yourself, to become part of the shadows where you were safe. Though, once he'd lost everyone, he decided there was no reason to hide anymore. Who was he going to live for anyway?

"Who's she?" He asked quietly, pointing a finger at the woman in the old photograph with his free hand. Bodies lay all over his bed, most asleep, but some were idly enjoying their high and staring at walls and the ceiling, or listening to the two at the head of the bed. 

"My great grandmother, Cat. She was a lot like me according to my mom, she said I look just like her." 

"You do, sweetpea. You could both be twins," Bane's hand lifted from its spot on her shoulder to ruffle her bright blue hair, his lips meeting her forehead in a loving kiss. "That why you dyed your hair blue? To match her?"

Her smile told him he was correct and he gave her a wink before looking down at the...one, two, three, four, five- five bodies on his bed. 

"Have we found homes, yet?"

"Mm, yeah, but they're all worried Alec is gonna find them, looking for you."

Bane's brows furrowed at that, his teeth catching his bottom lip and nibbling there in thought. It had been seven months of avoiding the eldest Lightwood sibling, he was tired of running, he was tired of having to plan his every move and hiding space. Alec certainly had become a pain in the ass, literally and...

_The hand around his throat held him up against the wall, their panting and moans echoing against the empty alley walls. The lack of blood flow was sending his mind into the sweetest natural high and his smile had gone from teasing amusement to sheer pleasure, only added to by the way Alec had angled his hips. Teeth were biting into his shoulder and he could feel every single wave of anger emanating off the taller man, the frustration and irritation with what they'd somehow come to doing when no one was watching. His teasing and flirting, his daring steps to even touch Alec in a way that someone trying to pet a potentially vicious dog and ready to move away had been accepted on a day that was just right. Alec had been in a mood, and it wasn't the normal mood that would have ended in Bane's death. As the hand moved down to join the other in gripping his hips, he could feel the bruises already forming and Alec was telling him how much he hated him, how he--_

"Bane?" 

He snapped out of his thoughts and cleared his throat, looking over to Alissa with an apologetic smile. Lost in his thoughts again, though he knew that she was aware he did it often.

"Yeah, I'm here. Let's wake them up and get some food into them, okay? Jacob dropped off some bags with clothes, have them take showers and get changed, we'll wash their clothes up."

"You're too good for us all, you know that?" Alissa said after looking up at him for a beat, her lips forming a soft smile. "Most people wouldn't take in us 'strays' and get us back on our feet, but you took that risk."

"Sometimes we all need to take risks if it means making this shithole a better place. There's just different approaches from everyone, and one single end-goal." 

Another kiss was pressed to her forehead before Bane slid off the bed, his own words resonating in his mind. Even if it meant sacrifices and risks, there were people all over this city that wanted nothing but the best to see it all turn around, to bring a true change for good. Alissa was working hard on helping him round up the addicts that needed help the most, letting them crash in his place or finding them somewhere else to sleep, all while they worked on finding them jobs and homes. Jacob was taking in his own strays, all dogs though, and training them to be companion animals to those that needed it, mostly those mentally affected but not consumed by the plague. Izzy was stealing Zydrate from her own family's labs to help Magnus, keeping him company and, most importantly, keeping him sane; showing him the meaning of a best friend while he worked his 'magic' on the drug to make it so it wasn't addictive and not only gave the high, but healed people inside and out, as well.

_**~10 years ago~** _

"Bane? Why Bane?" 

"Why not Bane? You came up with a fake name of your own, I can go by whatever I want to."

The boys mother looked at him skeptically, his returned gaze challenging her to really pick something wrong with it when the name she went by was false as well. 

"It's just so... negative..."

"It's mine now, so let's go with it, Niida."

A sigh of defeat paired with a triumphant smile, which only faltered when her long arms wrapped around him and pulled him into a tight embrace. Bane knew she was just being motherly, wanting the best for her only child while they played keep away from the Largo's and the Repo men that hunted the city for anyone on their 'unpaid' list. This was the case when it came to several members of their family- his mothers lungs, his fathers kidney, and, much to the corporations dismay, the device that kept his own heart beating. A replacement heart wasn't something he'd wanted, it was fake to him, something that would take away who he was. If he had someone else's heart, the one he had, which his mother told him was so big and full of love, would be obsolete. Bane would cease to be himself and he feared being someone cold and vicious like the men in masks that haunted their streets.

"Your boobs are smothering me," came the muffled complaint after succumbing to the hug to have her moment, his hands flailing behind her in slight panic. 

"Shhhh, just accept it, go to sleep."

Both laughed as he managed to yank himself away with a muttered 'You crazy bitch!', her eyes glinting with the same playfulness that was always in his own. Her hands shot out to grab him again and, with a quick duck, Bane was skirting away and making a quick exit out of their home with a wave behind him`. 

"Go find your father for your training! He'll be pissed if you don't, and you remember the last time you pissed him off!" The call came from the window right as the jingle of her comm announced she was getting a call, no doubt from whoever her employer was. They were always bothering her day and night, something she passed off by saying 'The life of a nurse will always be busy.'

"Yeah, yeah, go find him so he can kick my ass again..." Bane muttered as he tugged his long dark brown hair up and into a low, messy ponytail, his hood soon pulled over his head as well. His father meant well in training him how to fight, but sometimes he just didn't know when to stop pushing so hard and it wound up in both being frustrated at each other. It was never something that lasted longer than a day, Bane's mother made sure of that, usually scolding one or both of them in the end. 

"Sometimes the toughest people just need to be reminded that not everyone is bad. Bad at doing something, being a certain way, or just a bad person in general. Trust is a really, really tough thing to come across lately. All you can do is ask that your father gives you a chance to prove that you're trying."

_**~2 months ago~** _

"Listen, before you kill me, hear me out, okay? I need to give you something."

The grunt was full of desperation, Alec's hand tightening around Bane's throat as he was pinned against the crumbling brick wall of an abandoned building. Through the triumph laced anger in Alec's eyes, Bane could see a curiosity there, since he wasn't flirting with him like normal. Bane's hand tightened around the wrist holding his neck as he tried tugging it off, taking in a deep breath as it finally gave way and Alec released him. It stayed close, Bane noticed, though he couldn't blame him considering all the times he'd run and the months spent chasing him.

Bane's hand went into his pocket, producing a small, dark blue vial of the Zydrate he'd been working on and he handed it to Alec with some hesitance. Alec's face said it all when he saw the vial, the irritation and impatience over Bane probably trying to distract him with the drugs he peddled on the streets. When the eldest Lightwood's lips parted to deny the vial, his hand coming up to push it away, Bane lifted his free hand and sighed.

"It's not me trying to give you drugs. You have one of my people in your prisons. He's hurt and he's an addict. This is ... Zydrate that's been modified by me. I've been working on changing its composition to heal. Injuries, addiction, all while they get their high and don't know any better."

Alec's face had gone from irritation to disbelief, but not the one Bane would have hoped for.

"Bullshit. You want me to believe you of all people can change something like that? You're a dealer, not a scientist."

"I'm serious," Bane near growled as his eyes narrowed, "I'm not a scientist, I just... I can do things. I'm uh..." He felt nervous suddenly, but still he lifted his hand to brush his bangs aside, revealing the cat-like pupil beneath. 

Alec stepped back quickly, his hand going to the prod at his side, ready to defend himself even if realistically he knew that if Bane were rabid, he would have attacked months ago. How could he have not noticed it before? His mind raced as he thought of all the times he'd caught Bane, of any times his hair had shifted. There'd been an eyepatch quite a few times, and other times the eye had been closed when exposed or solely covered by his hair. The threat was still there to him, he knew that those with the plague had something wrong with him, and Alec was in no position or will to believe it was solely Bane's eye.

"I don't know how I can do it, but I'm able to adjust and gather energy to change the air around me, change the compositions of different things and... I don't know what it is. I didn't ask for it, I almost lost my life unwillingly receiving it. I didn't want it until I realized I could do this, and that I could help people. I made the best out of the worst."

Bane took a deep breath and stepped forward, offering up the vial again as he kept his other hand up in a sign of defeat. This time, Alec didn't step back, though his hand stayed on the prod. 

"Give this to him. He had agreed to let me test it on him before you caught him. He'll need more and I have more to give. Three vials, one week. That's all I'm asking. If he shows no signs of changing, I will turn myself in and you can do whatever you want. I don't go back on my promises, I always keep my word."

The simplest thing to do would have been to say 'No.' Alec had every chance to take him, cuff him, throw him into a cell and dust his hands of Bane, but in the back of his mind, the words 'he is the key' resonated. No matter how much he tried to shake the thought off, it repeated over and over, until it was all he could focus on, like someone was there in his mind with a megaphone, shouting it.

"Fine! Fine." Alec nearly shouted, startling Bane, who took a small step back with a raised brow. "Give me that." 

The vial was taken and inspected as an irritated sigh, the taller man's gaze rising to stare Bane down. Bane was standing straight, staring him in the eyes with confidence and Alec resolved to taking his word for it... for now. 

"One week, unless he dies. Then I will send every last person I have after you."

~

A week passed and for once, Bane hadn't run. He had seen Alec walking the street with his crew of 'cleaners', and for the first time in those 5 months, he approached Alec. The two times before had been hesitant drop off's in a rather rough pass by, one that left his shoulder aching even now. Alec caught sight of Bane and seemed surprised that he would approach like this, but once he'd sent the guards down different directions, he headed towards the alley Bane usually frequented.

"Did it work?" Bane asked eagerly as he approached Alec, his arms crossed over his chest as if it would stop his heart from hammering inside of it. 'Please, please work.' he thought to himself.

Alec was silent for longer than Bane would have liked as he weighed out the options of continuing to get this altered drug on the downlow, behind his parents back, or to just arrest Bane and have them force the fix out of him. Did he take the route that he would have chosen, put aside a grudge that was forced into him by his father and risk everything to work with someone who actually gave as much of a shit about the city as he did, or would he be his father?

"It worked. If you want to stay out of the cell, you're going to need to either tell us what you did to it, or give us more."

Bane could have danced, yelled, celebrated in every way possible, but he contained it all sans the bright smile that crossed his face. Alec was caught off guard by it, his pacing paused as he stared at Bane, a strange feeling stirring in him. Maybe he was getting sick.

"I can get you more. Izzy--" Bane stopped suddenly as he grimaced. Alec knew that Bane was who his sister was always spending time with, going to clubs and joyrides in the middle of the night, but Bane still felt bad ratting her out, even if accidentally.

"Bella has been stealing you Zydrate. I know." Alec took a deep breath and tilted his head, first this way then that, a solid crack coming with each one. "I'll get you some as well. You tell no one what we're doing, do you understand? If my father catches wind, he'll kill both of us. He doesn't give a shit about this city, he cares about the power and the money that comes with the job."

"Bella?" Bane asked, his face screwing up in confusion. "You call her Bella?"

"I-" Alec looked frustrated then before shaking his head, "Not for her name, for the literal term. It's been a thing since we were younger."

"Bella?" Bane asked again, laughing when Alec shoved him. "It's kind of cute. Thanks for letting me in on your little secret. If you get me more, I can make more, and I know people that really, really need it. If you can help me help them, I can get them off the drugs, off the streets. That's less for you to worry about, and more responsible people to pay you back. Deal?"

"...Deal."

_**~Now~** _

Bane could feel the heat moving through his body and to his hand, a faint glow of blue beginning to spread like a fire beginning to take hold of kindling, growing until it reached the light blue vial and turned it a darker blue. Smoke rose from the lid of the container as he placed it down in the small box it came from. The next vial was removed and his magic worked on it, then the next, and the next sixteen after that. By the time he'd finished he was damn near drained and he closed the lid of the box, flopping back onto the couch behind him with a lack of his normal grace. 

He, Izzy and Alec had been secretly working together on getting as many vials put together as they could without being caught, though there had been a few close calls. From this, they had learned that Bane's idea of sneaking into the Lightwood residence was not a fantastic idea, that all interactions would have to be held in the alley's or, only with Izzy, at his own home. Letting Alec know where he nested was the very last on the list of good ideas, as that meant he could take advantage of it if anything went south. It would stay this way for as long as he could keep it like that, the apartment blissfully silent other than the sound of the fan rotating in front of him and the sound of the crickets outside. 

Bane's mind wandered as he leaned back on the couch, his head resting against the back, his eyes falling shut. He was grateful for Izzy and Jacob, all the help and companionship they'd provided, also thinking then how he would have to introduce them and Alissa to complete their small friend circle. It went to his little alley 'children', all the people there that looked up to him for their high.

It went to Alec and the way his mothers words, his courage to act on them, had brought the man originally attempting to catch and imprison him to instead become an ally. It had forced the two of them, enemies, to work together for a good greater than their own rivalry. His courage, again, paired with his flirtatious nature had brought them to... 

The sound of his zipper lowering was brief in the silence, but the sound of his breath catching seemed louder than everything. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 4 will be delayed and posted on 9/16. I will be doing smaller ficlets in the meantime!


	4. Fallitur

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a night of nothing but sex, a week has passed and Bane finally pushes a stressed Alec to his limits. Luckily for Bane, Izzy and Jacob come to the rescue. 
> 
> This chapter is set to the song:  
> [I Get Off - Halestorm ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xqfTYQUxjQ)

Bane was used to having a keen ear out during crucial times, like when he was shooting up one of his 'children' in the alley and needing to keep aware of any of the Lightwood guards sneaking up on them. Or, in this particular case, Alec sitting outside his window and watching him as a lazy hand worked along the hard-on he had gotten from thinking of him. The footsteps on the old metal had Bane tensing up and cracking an eye open to look in the mirror across from him as his hand slowed to a stop, which permitted a view of just one half of the window by him. A shift in his position had his shirt covering himself and he was only seeing black in the reflection until another shift had part of Alec's face in view. Bane let out a slow breath since being caught with your pants down literally was one of the worst experiences one could have. 

Bane's brows furrowed as he realized this now meant Alec knew where he lived, despite his previous thoughts, which could prove problematic for him in the long run. Well, he had been wanting to move at some point. 

The sound of liquid swishing in glass was almost loud to him, his limited sight letting him see Alec lowering a bottle of something and licking his lips after. Was Alec...drinking and expecting to harass him? Maybe Bane's current predicament was what stopped him from interrupting. Something about this was thrilling and Bane could feel excitement stirring within him, from his chest to his stomach and finally ending right in his groin. Bane took in a slow breath as he dragged his eyes off the mirror, his free hand shifting his shirt out of the way to expose himself again, his previous movements resuming as he leaned his head back against the couch. 

Alec, unlike Bane, could see everything from his position. What had initially been a plan to see if his sources were correct in Bane's living space, had quickly turned into a peep show and, luckily for Alec, he had enough whiskey to last it. Half of the bottle was already in his system and he didn't even like the burning liquid, he hated the taste and didn't care much for the burn that went down, but it had been a rough day and he needed an escape. Seeing Bane touching himself, the way Alec could see part of his face in the mirror, the flashes of pleasure crossing his face, the slightest hint of a smile curling his lips... he took another long swig from the bottle as Bane paused and he felt the familiar twitch of his cock starting to grow within his jeans.

They had fucked plenty times before, sneaking around and getting their frustrations out in more ways than just fists flying at each other. It had become fun in a way, getting Alec's anger and irritation with his father and mother out on someone who took the hit with a smile, who wasn't afraid to give it right back, giving Alec that pain he ached for. The physical pain took the mental and emotional from him, spilling with his blood. Something about watching Bane now seemed wrong yet so right. 

"Are you going to keep watching, or are you going to join?"

The words shocked Alec out of the thoughts he'd gotten lost in while watching Bane, his eyes soon focusing on the man on the couch. Bane's head was tilted back enough to look at him, his hand moving as agonizingly slow as it had started after his pause, but despite that hand, it was the grin on Bane's lips that had Alec moving through the open window, his boots thudding on the worn wood floors. They carried him over to the edge of the couch as his eyes swept the inside of the apartment briefly, the bottle lifted to his lips once more. Spotting the edge of a bed around an obscuring wall made of what looked like frosted glass, he nodded his head towards it and put the bottle down on a small side table in front of him. 

"Go."

The command had Bane's brow raising, he always thought that in his own home it was his rules, but with the sudden rush of hormones that had raced through him, he removed his hand from himself to stand and move towards his bedroom room. Bane glanced back before his hands shifted to slide up his shirt and tug it up over his head, the longer hair shifted aside to expose the large tattoo that covered Bane's back. 

Alec's eyes trailed greedily over newly exposed flesh he'd never seen before, over the black ink forming a large mandala pattern that took up the expanse of his back from shoulders to his lower back, the largest circle of the five mid back, spiked designs surrounding it as the half circle coming from his neck held a softer pointed design. His tan skin peeking between each separation in the lines, perfect flesh colored lines between the large patches of black used to accentuate and border the design. Alec's gaze landed on the two small circles on either side of his waist seeming to move with each subtle sway of his hips. 

This was the elusive, flirty, firey Bane, vulnerable, bare, exposing himself to his predator, and Alec was going to devour him.

Bane's hands couldn't get his pants lowered before Alec's heavy steps had him across the short distance between them, a short breath forced past Bane's lips as his hips were grabbed and he was yanked back against Alec's body. The action was enough to earn a moaned response as Bane's ass grinded back against the erection Alec was working on freeing with the single hand that had released him, making it harder for the other man to both focus and have space to work. It was his fault, after all, for putting Bane there.

"Need some help there?" Bane's voice was low and sultry, his body turning so he could slap Alec's hand away, fingers deftly popping the button loose and sliding the zipper down.

"It was your fault," Alec growled as Bane undid it all before he could, a shuddering groan following his words as Bane's warm hand slipped within and wrapped around his cock, feeling too restrained in the tight pants. 

The hand wouldn't stay there long, not with the way Alec removed it and slid his hands under Bane's ass, one swift lift having long legs wrap around his waist as his own carried them forward, Bane's back roughly meeting one of the wide wooden support poles in the bedroom. Alec's teeth left behind red marks as he bit along Bane's collarbone and chest, hard enough that it wouldn't be long before they'd likely be purple and black. Bane seemed to enjoy every second with the way his hands were buried in Alec's hair, tugging and gripping from low near the roots, a feeling that had goosebumps rising on Alec's skin. The grip only loosened and released as the hands slid down, the soft sound of his shirt buttons dropping to the floor as the shirt was ripped open. 

"Seriously?" Alec muttered as he looked up, seeing that shit-eating grin greeting him.

"Seriously." 

Bane's view was on his torso, eyes and fingers traveling along the large cross tattooed on him, tracing the crown wrapped around the top stem, the lion in the center. The kings of the pride, the Lightwood emblem that accompanied every announcement both on paper and on the television. Alec pulled Bane's hips down, getting his attention back to their issues at hand, his teeth digging into the tender flesh of his neck. Their hips pressed in a desperate grind against each other, Bane's breath heavy in Alec's ear until his head tilted back against the wooden support behind him. 

Alec, content with the bite marks he'd left behind, worked at lowering Bane's pants though he found the true difficulty of this pair being much tighter than what Bane wore when in the alley, which he may have attributed to due to his chasing. A swear was muttered into Bane's neck as a grin spread across Bane's face- Alec needed quite a bit of help tonight. Bane slipped his hands around the two handles on either side of the beam, there for coats and certainly not this, but used to his advantage as he pushed his hips outward to back Alec up, his legs dropping from him.

"Second drawer, left side." Bane motioned to the nearby nightstand, his hands moving to slide off the pants he wore, Alec giving him a quizzical look that was almost cute in a stupid puppy way. "You've spit fucked me enough, you're in my house." The grumble was accentuated with a hand motioning to the drawer.

Alec registered what he meant quick enough, nearly stumbling as he moved to the bureau to open the drawer, retrieving the lube and condom from within. By the time he was the four steps back to Bane, the other was fully nude and not at all looking self conscious about it- something that made Alec's cock twitch in excitement as the last remaining blood he believed he possessed left his upper body and went straight down. Other than the tattoo on Bane's back, the rest of him was unmarred outside of a few scars here and there, one on his chest that he'd likely question later if he remembered. Alec had Bane back up against the pole within seconds of Bane taking the items from him, a grunt of surprise ignored in lieu of watching the ringed fingers move the condom onto him. 

It seemed like a flurry of actions, maybe he blacked out from the amount he'd had to drink, or maybe he just completely zoned out, but Alec snapped to quick attention when he felt that familiar tight heat wrapped around him and the almost addictive sigh of pleasure coming from the one he had pinned to the pole. It was another tug of his hair and a harsh bite to the crook between his neck and shoulder that had that same primal urge hitting him, punching him straight back into the reality of their actions and out of his haze as his hips snapped forward and began a quick pace. Alec's head dropped as he moved, his fingers curling and digging into Bane's back, his thumbs bruising his sides. Bane's hands soon moved up, wrapping around the posts they'd held earlier, his knuckles white as he arched his body just right, Alec knowing exactly why as he felt the clench around him. 

A hiss of air was sucked between Alec's teeth as he shifted, moving with Bane. While the dealer hadn't seemed vocal during their times in the alley, Alec noted that he didn't mind being louder here, likely due to their sneaking around and not having to hide for once. Something was almost special about it, that despite being the fox in the hen house, Bane hadn't resorted to violence to get Alec away. At the same time, Alec realized he'd willingly fallen into the flirt, he'd seen and craved, much like he did during nights at home when he couldn't sleep and found himself getting off to the thought of Bane. The complaining creak of wood had Alec's rhythm uneven, Bane even glancing up at the support beam that attached to the ceiling. The tiniest drift of the plaster that made the ceiling drifted down and Bane considered telling Alec to move to the bed, but when one particular thrust had a spike of pleasure racing up his spine, he squirmed managed to pant out, 'Don't stop,". Bane was so damn close from his earlier actions, their grinding, and the way Alec was brutally exploiting that spot within, and by now he could tell Alec was as well by the way he was burying his face in the crook of his neck. 

"With me, Alec, cum with me. A-always with me." Bane managed to get out, another creak of the wood heard and ignored, though this time it sounded closer. He didn't know what made him say it, but Alec's moan, muffled by his sweat slicked skin, was enough of an agreement for him. What surprised him most was the shift of arms, one moving around his back to hold him up, Alec's other moving to wrap around Bane's cock, stroking him quickly in time with the movement of his hips.

A few more thrusts and the friction was enough to have Alec slam his cock as deep as he could within Bane, a guttural moan flooding the bedroom, matched by Bane's own as his body arched and writhed with his release, one final warning groan mingling in before the coathandles snapped off of the support beam. A pleasurable high interrupted too soon out of shock as Bane's body slipped just enough to cause panic, the handles clattering to the floor, but Alec's reflexes were fast enough for him to react and wrap his other arm around Bane, holding him up and tugging him towards himself. 

"Fuck," Bane panted, draping himself over Alec's shoulder as he tried to regain his breath, feeling Alec's chest heaving against his own. Alec shifted, bringing them over to the bed and knelt on the edge, lowering them both onto it. 

Little did they both know at the time, Bane's 'fuck' was less a word of pleasure and panic, but instead a theme of the night. Several times.

The light coming through the glass of the wall had Bane rolling over with an annoyed groan, his body stopped short by something beside him. One eye opened, the feline like slit dilating when he saw the bare back in front of him, tracing over the scratch marks running from shoulder to right above Alec's ass, the blood having dried by now. So he hadn't left. His other eye opened as he sat up, looking over the sleeve on Alec's right arm, his fingers moving to trace over the rather detailed, beautiful and biblical scene of angels descending from clouds at his shoulder, spears drawn and flying towards the demons engulfed in flames by his wrist. 

Beneath those flames, very prominently, was a dark bruise circling Alec's wrist and, leaning over him carefully, he spotted a matching one on the opposite wrist. A grin crept across Bane's face, knowing he'd held on a little too tightly while riding him, having taken Alec's hands and pinned them above him so he could only watch and not touch as Bane pleasured himself with Alec's body. Bane's movements were careful as shifted, leaning his head over Alec's shoulder, his hand shaking the other man's arm lightly to wake him. Alec's groan of disapproval matched his earlier and Magnus pressed a kiss to Alec's cheek, contradicting all the times they had refused to kiss each other due to these being quick fucks and not anything more.

" _Get the fuck out of my house_." Bane's words were whispered in Alec's ear before he moved away to get off the bed, the coffee in the kitchen waiting to be made and calling his name.

~~

"Jacob, can you help them out? I need to walk away. I've been going nonstop for hours and I'm drained." Bane said quietly, his hand resting on the arm of the much taller male beside him.

Easily at 6'4, the blue-eyed gentle giant gave him a bright smile and nodded, patting his thigh to get the dog beside him to follow as he headed into the waiting group with Bane's bag. Jacob was one of Bane's closest friends, a man who didn't at all seem affected by the devastated hell surrounding them or the dire situation most of the people were in. It was work that was wearing him down and, from what he'd seen of the eldest Lightwood sibling, it was finally starting to take its toll on Alec. There was one small light in the dark though, the treatments they were giving his jailed follower was working. He no longer craved the drug and the wounds he'd had from fights and surgery were healing nicely- he was even offering to find a job and begin paying back the Lightwood's for the surgeries out of honesty rather than desperation in fear of death.

"Alec!" The figure was undeniably him, walking past the alley on his way to another and moving quickly as if he was trying to get away from something. So much so that he didn't stop for Bane's call as he neared. 

Bane turned down the alley and began following Alec, which was strange to him considering it had always been the other way around, but the man had disappeared for a week after their night together and Bane couldn't truly believe it was because of how he'd kicked him out. Catching up to Alec, he could see the other looked troubled and agitated, his eyes dark and contemplating. Bane caught his arm, causing Alec to turn quickly, his brows furrowing in irritation as he pulled his arm away.

"Not tonight, Bane. Really." Alec began moving again and Bane watched him before moving forward, grabbing his arm again briefly before falling in step with him. 

Alec growled low in his throat as he halted to a stop again and shoved Bane away from him. He was already on edge because of a fight with his father, one that had resulted in his mother being dragged into it, involving the family, money, and the broken politics of the family. The leader of the city was stepping down due to old age and both rules and protection had lapsed in between, causing chaos and riots in certain parts of the city. His father, a violent and cruel man, wanted to go for this newly opened position to bring order to the city, but Alec and Maryse both knew that it would turn into how everything was under the Largo's. Maryse had suggested to Robert that Alec run for the position, due to all the hard work he'd put into helping already, and he was already well loved by those who had seen and met him so far.

"Bane, fuck off, okay? I need space. I can't deal with this shit tonight." Alec gave a pointed look, hoping Bane would just accept it and leave him be so he could escape to...somewhere, and work off the steam bottled up within him.

"Is this because of what I said to you after that night? Are your feelings hurt or something? Kind of a pussy thing to be hurt by me telling you to leave." Bane said the last words in amusement, something that just seemed to make Alec's blood boil hotter, the taller figure running his hand over his face before pushing it up and his hair back.

"It's not about that night. It's not about you. This is way over you and I'm getting really sick of you pushing me all the time like this. Next time I'm-"

"You're what? Going to hit me? Hit me with that prod? I'm not afraid of you hurting me, you're basically a puppy."

Alec's fist was quick to move out, catching Bane's jaw before he could react. Bane touched his jaw, his mouth moving and rolling it before his feet shifted, launching him forward as he ducked enough to drive a shoulder into Alec's stomach, hurtling them both to the ground. Two punches landed home on Alec's face before he was shoved off, rolling to his side and getting himself up, ignoring the dirt and debris that stuck to his jacket along the way.

Alec shifted and touched his lip, looking at the blood that came off with it. He pushed himself off the ground and the prod was removed from his belt. He would show Bane a puppy. The first swing was dodged easily and the amused laughter that echoed through the alley came with a scuff of boots as Alec swung, and missed, once more. It was the third move, a grab of Bane's arm to draw him close as he sank the prod against the dealer's side that hit home, and Alec reveled in the look of nervousness that passed Bane's face as he sank to his knees. Alec released Bane's arm as he stepped back, lifting his arms and shoulders in an 'I told you so' way before the prod was closed and snapped back onto his belt, turning back to the way he came and walking until he disappeared around the corner.

Bane knew he'd made a mistake then, knew by the way his heart was erratically pounding and the pain was spreading through his chest and arm that pushing Alec tonight was not the best choice he'd made. Bane swallowed thick as he leaned down on his right arm, a slow and ragged gasp taken in as he felt the weight on his chest grow, his fingers growing numb as he fumbled for the phone in his pocket, trying to pull up and hit Jacob's name on the call list and instead hitting 'Izzy'.

"Bane! How are you baby? I'm right near your alley, like two min---" Her voice rang out from the phone as her face filled the screen with her bright smile, though it faded fast as he leaned over it the screen before he collapsed beside it.

"Help."

~~

"BANE!" Izzy yelled as she ran down the alley, ignoring the bewildered looks she got from the patrons within. Jacob looked up as the blue drug disappeared into one of the users arms, his free hand pointing towards the end of the alley as he looked on confused. 

Izzy's heels clicked heavy against the grungy alley as she ran as fast as they'd permit, her eyes desperately searching along the way as she went. It was only when she heard a faint groan through the pounding of her own blood that she saw his body crumpled on the ground. She quickly slid to his side, ignoring the burn of the dirt and asphalt against her knees as she rolled him onto his back, her hands moving to cup his face, scrunched up in agony.

"What's happening?! What do I do?!" She asked desperately, tears filling her eyes until she spotted him clutching his chest. "Is it the piece?! Is it malfunctioning?!"

"Alec, prod." 

Izzy felt rage engulf her, overcoming the fear and she looked around to see if Alec was still nearby and just not helping, but he was nowhere to be found. The swears she muttered were quick and in Spanish, had Bane been more conscious he likely would have asked to learn what she said. 

"Jacob."

The name had her clueless, she knew no one named Jacob or where this person was. Suddenly she remembered him telling her about one of his friends named Jacob and she nodded, torn between leaving him to find this Jacob or trying to drag Bane out of the alley. Grabbing his phone, she called the hospital, telling them to expect them, then pulled up 'Jacob' on the phone. When he picked up, his smile faded when it wasn't Bane on the other end, just the erratic girl that had just sprinted past them. 

"Uh...hi?"

"Bane is hurt and I need you to help me! I'm right down the alley, you just saw me! They have the inner city blocked off because of the Leader's sending off parade, you need to bring a car or something and we need to get him to the hospital, NOW."

Jacob stared at Izzy on the screen before he opened his mouth to speak, closing it once more as he nodded and stood from where he was. Grabbing Bane's bag and ending the call, he quickly ran down the alleyway to find them, not taking long before he was kneeling beside them, the reality of the situation finally hitting him.

"Shit, is it his defibrillator?" Jacob asked, lowering his head to a now unconscious Bane's chest, listening to the erratic pace within. The beat he heard seemed to stop before quickly beating again, fluttering like a bird was trapped in Bane's chest, then stopping again. "Okay, we have to get him to the hospital."

"I already called, you need to drive. I'll stay in the back with him." Izzy declared, standing to put Bane's phone in her pocket and take one of his arms, trying to lift him herself. It wasn't fun like the times where he would play deadweight to listen to her grunt and strain to push him off her lap and off the couch.

"With... what car?" Jacob asked, taking Bane's other arm and shifting to hoist him across his arms and carry him. Izzy pointed to the end of the alley, quickly leading him down towards the car that had been waiting for her despite her request for the driver to leave, an overbearing guard for the family that, with Robert's express orders, was to never take _her_ orders. 

"Out!" Izzy said as she opened the door, grabbing the drivers arm and yanking him out of the seat, then moved to open the back door. "We need to borrow this, go home!" 

Jacob carefully placed Bane in the backseat as he listened to Izzy argue with the driver, the man clearly getting agitated with her brazen action. Stepping forward towards the guard, who was at least a foot shorter than him, his eyes narrowed as he pressed a hand to the man's chest to shove him back. 

"It's an emergency. Fuck off. She'll bring it back." 

Izzy had taken advantage of getting into the car and had her head on Bane's chest, a yell of 'Hurry!' coming from within the car. When Jacob looked back, Izzy was straddling Bane, her hands over his heart as she pumped his chest. It didn't more than that for Jacob to practically dive into the drivers seat, the tires screeching louder than the yelling man as Jacob raced towards the city. 


	5. Mea Culpa

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frustrations and backgrounds heavy, a new door is opened and the cat is let out of the bag.
> 
> This chapter is set to the song:  
> [Se Quel Dolor: IX. Occhi de' miei desire d'amor nidi - Fieri Consort](https://open.spotify.com/track/0teNRBb3dHydGOqTsmRhJy?si=hRP5RIDgSJejgb3q868FYQ)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay on this one! I've been on vacation all week and wasn't able to get this one out by Tuesday.

****Jacob's large frame looked awkward within the relatively small visitor chair settled in the darker corner of the room they'd placed Bane in. One long leg bounced quickly as he watched the nurse moving around the bed, taking vitals and marking them on the chart she seemed to use as a reference, notes from the previous nurse that had come in to check on him an hour ago. Nothing had changed, Jacob had watched his friends monitor obsessively, he could have given her all the information she was looking for. The machine was still going with his erratic heartbeat, each brief pause in the beeps keeping Jacob on edge and ready to go for the nearest doctor at the station around the corner. Without Bane awake, and without anyone else blood-related to him or without a proxy, they were at a stand-still on what to do. There was no DNR on file, nor was Bane himself on file anywhere, which Jacob knew well because it was a way to hide his identity. Taking in a slow breath and soon clearing his throat as he shifted to lean his elbows on his knees, his attention turned to the door as Izzy walked in with the doctor, both talking about what they should do, Izzy looking at Jacob then as she motioned to him.

"He's Bane's best friend. If anyone's going to make a decision, he'd know what Bane would want best."

Jacob's heart dropped into his stomach as he swallowed the lump in his throat, standing to go over to them. Yes, he was his best friend, he knew exactly what Bane would have wanted, but at this point there was a struggle within him of sticking with what Bane wanted and going off his own heart, and Izzy's heart. Going off the good of the people in the alleys that depended on Bane and the safety net he provided with his altered Zydrate. The doctor looked up at him before offering over the clipboard, a form for a new heart provided by the Lightwood's from an un-named donor on top. 

"No, he wouldn't want a new heart." Jacob said immediately. "Think of something else. A new pacemaker or defibrillator or--"

"We don't have that option, sir. The one he currently has was able to restart itself, but it's showing signs of malfunctioning. It's only going to last so long before it short circuits and causes more damage to his heart. He needs a transplant."

Jacob looked from the doctor to Izzy, who was looking up at him with a pleading look in her eyes, then to Bane, watching the nurse replacing the fluid on the line beside him. Jacob's hand rose as his rubbed at his mouth and jaw, feeling the stubble there from not shaving that morning, anxiety budding in him worse than it had the past couple hours. They'd had this talk before, the two of them remained unaltered in the sense of getting any new organs, Jacob merely for the reason of having good genetics on both sides of his family, who came from up North where most things were untouched in the woods. Bane... Bane had always told him that the only part of him that would ever need to be replaced was his heart, and that he would rather die than get someone else's. There was always going to be someone else in the city that could use it more, that if his heart was replaced with someone else's, then he would cease to be him. Bane believed that just because it wasn't his own, he would love differently, he would lose the strongest part of himself that his mother always prided on him being the biggest and kindest.

Jacob watched the rise and fall of Bane's chest, watched the way it would seize briefly as the machine beeped wildly on queue. This was his best friend of over a decade. This was the man who, as a young teen, had welcomed him with open arms, his family offering an open home to escape his own, gave him a place in a new city, who had easily become a brother to him despite no blood relation. His best friend was going to save the world. 

"...Do it." Jacob choked out, shoving the clipboard back to the doctor as he let out a shaking sigh, moving away from the two to instead go and sit back in the chair, burying his face in his hands.

"Thank you." Izzy's voice was small, soft, after a long beat of quiet once the doctor and nurse had left to prepare, her hand resting on a broad shoulder. "I think I couldn't bear to lose him just as much as you couldn't."

It seemed so unfitting of her in Jacob's opinion, to be so quiet and meek. She seemed strong, loud, confident and proud just by how she held herself. However, when he looked up at her, he realized how tiny she was at that moment. Defeated, tired. She'd been fighting the doctor for nearly an hour according to the clock and Jacob only wondered if she resorted to her name and status to get them to cave into letting him make the decision.

"He's not going to be happy about this, but he's going to..."

"Save the city." Izzy finished, giving Jacob's shoulder a squeeze.

\--

"Isa-- What are you doing?" Raphael asked as he walked into the room, Izzy pausing her swipe over Bane's fingernail with the black nail polish. 

"I mean, what does it look like I'm doing, Raphael?" She retorted as she held up the nail polish bottle with a look that was as sarcastic as her words. "Did you find Alec?"

"I did, though if you had just bothered to go look around, you would have too. He's in his hall in the other wing." Raphael watched Izzy applying the nail polish to Bane's nails, seeing the storm growing from the expression on her face. Where he had planned on leaving after letting her know where her brother was, pure curiousity had him deciding to stay and watch the explosion he knew was coming- he was living for it.

Izzy had left Alec multiple voicemails, each getting angrier when he wouldn't pick up for her, a rule they'd set between each other the day they had gotten their first phones- no matter what, they picked up for each other when they called.

"Thank you, Raphael, that's all. Go away now." Izzy's tone had changed drastically in a minute and Raphael smiled, this was the side of her that always made him giddy for more. Raphael turned to leave and spotted Jacob on his way, the two men eyeing each other until Raphael resumed his way out, shutting the door behind him.

"He seems pleasant." Jacob muttered, finishing the text he was reading, a confirmation that his dogs had been taken by Alissa to be cared for while he was with Bane. 

"He's a giant dick, and I hate him." Izzy responded nonchalantly as she capped the nail polish and slipped it into her bag, carefully positioning Bane's hands to let them dry. 

Izzy's relationship with Raphael was much like Alec and Bane's, though the sexual aspect was nearly non-existent. She'd learned he was asexual, a term that wasn't unknown with her, but not clear enough for her to understand on the first go. She didn't understand why he'd say teasing words with that wolfish smile, why he'd let her get close, but deny any sexual advances. Then, a couple weeks later, he'd have her backed into a corner and he'd be touching along her skin tortuously slow as he told her what a good girl she was when she would shiver and melt in his touch. A long and rare heart to heart talk with him had her understanding that just because he didn't find everyone attractive, didn't want sex with anyone that could walk by, didn't mean that he didn't feel anything at all. Raphael still had a sex drive, only it was very low and on his terms, when he knew his body wanted it, as rare and far between as it was. That, sometimes, when he knew how he was affecting her, that by watching her reactions to his touch and words, it would pass to him and that would be one of the rare times they would actually have sex. Most of the time he seemed content just bringing her pleasure, citing that it made him feel content when he couldn't reach the same level everyone else could. 

"I'll be back, I'm going to find Alec. He's going to apologize." Izzy said as she stood, moving the chair back and out of the way of the nurses that frequently came in to check on Bane now that the surgery had been completed. 

"How well do you think that's going to go?" Jacob asked as he stretched in the (much larger) recliner chair they'd brought him since he looked, as Izzy had put it, 'like a clown in a tiny car' in the previous chair. A laugh rumbled in his chest as he saw the unimpressed look she gave him, no doubt she thought he would be as stubborn as she was.

This gave Jacob time to get a little shut eye, to rest like he hadn't been able to over worry of Bane going down the wrong path and passing while he was asleep. So far the new heart was being accepted and Bane's body was reacting normally to it, the doctor's saying they were optimistic that he'd be just fine, albeit sore when he woke. When the billing department had come in to ask Jacob how they planned to pay for the surgery and heart, Izzy had come to his side and introduced herself (which Jacob noted by the nurses wide eyes was unnecessary), informing them that the Lightwood's would be footing this bill and to add it to the tab of one of their doctor's to be paid with the next payroll round. Izzy had informed Jacob after that she knew that was how they paid their doctors only because of the times she had watched her mother go through the bills, and it was the only way they'd get it past the elder Lightwood's.

Jacob was snapped out of the beginning of a comfortable doze by the sound of Izzy yelling in the distance, her voice easily carrying through the halls. It was none of his business listening in, but he also couldn't help hearing her scolding him for going too far, for hurting someone that was helping them. The nurse that came in and quickly shut the door had a nervous look on her face and Jacob wondered if she had to pass that hellstorm to get to this room. She pulled out papers and sat in the small chair beside him, showing that she needed Bane's information and, despite his hesitance to give it, he began working with her to fill it all out, both trying to ignore the small, raging Lightwood outside.

Raphael was listening as well, leaning against a wall outside of a nearby room as he ate an apple he'd pilfered from the cafeteria, even daring to peek around the corner to watch the siblings. What surprised him the most was how Alec had his head bowed and didn't dare to look his sister in the eyes, something that Raphael noted must have been his silent admission to guilt and a type of repenting. Or he just wasn't crazy enough to tell her to shut up. 

"Bella-"

"NO. NO BELLA, ALEXANDER." Izzy shouted, shoving his chest before putting a finger up in a menacing way. "You're going to _get in that room_ and you're going to apologize to Bane, right now. YOU messed up, YOU hurt him this badly after everything he's been doing to help us, YOU know better, Alec. Whatever this is that you're doing to him, it needs to stop. He's sent me screenshots. I see the shit you sent him, which, by the way, you're a dick for touching my phone, I changed my password. But you need to talk to him and get your goddamn shit together and stop treating him the way you do." 

Alec inhaled and bit back a comment he could have made about how her passwords were always the same and the easiest to crack, this would be a terrible idea to bring something like that up while she was this mad. She wasn't wrong. There were things that he had sent that he hadn't realized until days later, things that were a drunk, upset Alec, and not the levelheaded Alec that stood in front of Izzy now. 

"Alright, okay, stop. Stop. I'll go talk to him." Alec finally said as he lifted his hands defensively once she had started going off on him in Spanish, much like their mother did whenever she was upset with them. 

\--

Bane slept through the commotion thanks to the pain drugs they had put him on after the surgery, though as the bag's content ran dry, he slowly woke and became more conscious of his surroundings. A shift of his body had him hissing in pain, his hand lifting to his chest as his eyes opened, only for his hand to bypass the wound on his chest to cover his eyes. A double attack on both senses and nerves, but the quiet shuffling of feet had that bright light diminished, Alec's voice coming with the returning steps. 

"They had to do surgery. I..." 

Bane could hear Alec's voice taper off in hesitance and it wasn't until he uncovered his eyes to look at the oldest Lightwood son that Alec continued, his gaze on his hands, looking a way Bane had never seen him before. Alec looked...nervous. Guilty. He didn't look like the strong and confident hunter that Bane had come to get used to and it was alien to Bane, who had almost come to expect that personality to be how he was even outside of work.

"I fucked up. Izzy said you had something on your heart, that tall guy said you got it instead of a new heart. That after I... shocked you, I really damaged it and could have killed you. I'm sorry for that." Alec finally looked up, locking eyes with Bane, who looked rightfully upset with him, though it was his silence that had Alec on the edge of his seat. 

"I know you were drunk every time you messaged me, but are you even aware of everything you did? What you said? I told you to get out after a, frankly, fucking great, night, and then I don't see you for a week. No skulking the alleys, no coming to threaten me or my people, sending Izzy for the Zydrate. But yet it was like clockwork, I would get messages from you almost every night saying about how you like your hand around my throat, how you like the chase because everyone just throws whatever you want at you and I make you actually put effort into doing anything. The fucking text about how good I feel around you? Alec, I get it, you're going through shit with your family, but I don't understand the shit we're going through. Almost a year ago you hated me with every fiber of your being. You threatened to kill me every chance you could to keep me in line. And now all this? Finding out where I live? Finding out my number and saying you're coming ? What do you _want_ from me?"

Bane took a deep breath and made a face as pain stung in his chest, the neck of the hospital gown lifted to look at the fresh wound on his chest, his face falling as he remembered what Alec said. It wasn't his anymore, he was never going to be the same. His head fell back against the pillow as he closed his eyes, trying to calm himself and will that pain away, but without the medicine it made it tough. Alec watched him and pressed the call button for the nurse, who was planning on coming back within the hour, but the discomfort was even clear to Alec and even he couldn't consciously make someone suffer like that.

"He needs more," Alec said to the nurse when she came in, pointing up to the empty bag hanging beside the bag, Jacob's choice when they offered Zydrate. He'd said that Bane would never use it, which was a surprise enough to Alec considering it was what he dealt in the alleys. At the same time, Alec had remembered what Bane had told him about his...abilities thanks to the plague, something Alec had been skeptical of until he decided to secretly administer the Zydrate he'd been given to the prisoner himself. This way he wouldn't have to explain to anyone where he got it or why he preferred it over what the lab could produce for him for pain. 

Alec was grateful to have the break in their talk, a second scolding in a row and he was already tired of everything that had happened so far. Both he and Bane were silent as the nurse moved around, setting up the new bag and tossing out the old, the moment almost seeming awkward with the silence that had filled the room.

"My parents want me to go against Fillitreux in the upcoming election. My father has been pushing me more and more to be this ... perfect, militant, business machine. He's been forcing me to crack down on your alleys, replacing my guards with those that keep track of me. I can't even piss without them waiting outside the door for me, like I'm some child. Drinking became my getaway and..."

"You hate drinking, I can see it in your face every swig you take."

"Yeah, well, it burns and tastes like shit, but going somewhere and blacking out is better than the constant mental destruction he gives."

"That's great, Alec, really, it is, but you know what? Not when I'm dragged into the middle of it. Don't forget, you're the one that hated--hates? Whatever, you're the one that harbored the shitty attitude towards me, threatened to throw me in jail, then suddenly we're fucking in alleys. I'm...not complaining about that because, once again, great, but really. I thought it would end there, not house calls or texts saying you're going to come over and then never show up."

Alec rubbed his face with his hands before using them to brush back his hair as he leaned back against the chair.

"I...used you as a scapegoat and I only remember that one night. When I came through your window. It was..."

"....Great?"

Alec looked at Bane with a raised brow, unable to hold back the soft laugh when Bane grinned and wiggled his eyebrows, nodding finally as he gave a soft, 'Yeah.'

"Look, I'm sorry. I can't say I still wouldn't have shocked you, but... if I knew you had what you did, I wouldn't have. I would have just knocked you out." Alec paused briefly as he motioned to Bane's covered chest. "I was actually wondering what that old scar was that night, I just figured you were in some fight."

"No, it was from when I was 13. There were some complications when I was a kid that they thought had passed, but really they were just so minor that no one ever noticed. Then when they started getting bad, they told me they wanted to replace my heart. but I told them I refused. I'd rather just die of whatever it was than lose the part of me that makes me love the way I do. But I guess that's just...useless now."

"Bane, your heart doesn't make you love the way you do. It's--"

"Hey guys, we brought you food." Izzy said as she entered the room with Jacob, unknowingly interrupting Alec as she brought the trays over. "Yours was approved by the nurse, so you can eat it with no worry, Bane."

Izzy pressed a kiss to Bane's forehead before placing Alec's tray in his hands. She gave an expectant look to the two of them, receiving a confirming nod from Alec, which brought a bright smile to her face. As she moved to take the other seat in the room, she paused at the clipboard at the end of the bed, a name catching her attention. Her fingers wrapped around the board as she lifted it quickly, turning the page, her eyes skimming over the paper before she spun to look quickly back at Jacob, who was staring at her mid-bite of his sandwich. Turning back to Bane with a shocked look on her face, Alec was quick to catch on that something was wrong. 

"Izzy-"

" _Magnus_? You're.... you're a--"

"Largo? Magnus Largo?" The doctor announced as he walked into the room, looking at his own clipboard before looking up at Bane.

Bane's face dropped as if the new heart they'd given him had failed, a clattering beside them hinting that maybe Alec's had as well. Alec's face was paled and he looked quickly from the doctor to Bane, the expression on his face saying that he knew he'd made a big mistake. 

"You're... the last living Largo? _You're_ the key he was talking about."


	6. Bane birthday short!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec almost killed Bane and when he finally let down his walls just enough, Bane went at them like a wrecking ball.
> 
> This is a late little birthday short I wrote for Magnus/Bane's birthday, that will be used for the time skip that'll come with the next chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been busy and in a writing void for the past few months, but I'm slowly coming back to pick this up again! 💋💜
> 
> Next chapter coming soon!

"Bane, wake up."

Alec's knee nudged the bed from where he stood at the edge, a groan muffled into a pillow was the response, coming from the lump within the huge pile of blankets and comforters. With how warm it was in the apartment, Alec could only wonder how Bane wasn't currently in risk of a heat stroke from under it all. Alec kneeled on the bed and moved closer to the center, his free hand beginning to remove blankets and soon lifting, only to come down in a slap on the dealers rear.

"Wake up, you lazy ass!"

"Harder! You slap like a pussy." Came the muffled response, a laugh lacing Bane's words. 

Alec dodged the pillow that came flying his way, a swear muttered under his breath as he sat back on his heels when the rest of the blankets shifted as Bane turned and sat up, shoving them down. A long night of drinking with friends, managing to get home and passing out had left Bane's makeup smeared like a raccoon around his eyes and his hair disheveled, half undone from the normal braid.

"It's daytime, so I know I'm not late to the alley... Why are you here?" Bane asked as he yawned and stretched, his arms shaking briefly as the muscles strained and contracted. Blurry eyes were rubbed at when he tried to make out what Alec was holding against his side. "What is that?" 

Alec tried to hide his grin as he watched the confusion on Bane's face when he tried to see what he held, but it broke free as he held out the small, squirming, white seal point kitten. It wore a badly tied black ribbon around its neck, letting out a pitiful, protesting mewl as it was removed from the warmth of Alec's side.

"A pussy."

Bane's face dropped as he heard the noise, his hands immediately shooting out at such a stark contrast of how gingerly they took the small bundle of fur. The kitten was drawn in to Bane's lap as he looked at it in disbelief, giving the same look to Alec shortly after, then back and forth between the two until it settled fully on the kitten that he lifted up in front of his face.

"Izzy told me it was your birthday, then said I had to get you a present because 'that's what friends do' , and I know she wouldn't shut up unless I did something. I always see you fawning over our cats and I knew the breeder we got ours from had these guys ready, so... Now you can do it over your own and leave Church alone."

Alec had purposely left out Izzy's full commentary of 'friends and casual fuckbuddies'.

"He loves my affections and you know it!" Bane retorted, his face scrunched up in offense. "You just got me a cat to one up whatever Isabelle got me, didn't you?"

"He really hates it, he hates all of us. And no, I didn't." Alec retorted, though with a roll of his eyes, he eventually nodded. "Yeah, I did. So... I take it you like him?"

Bane laughed and lifted the kitten in front of his face, knowing it was going to be a huge task keeping the kitten inside when he enjoyed leaving the windows open so much. This was something be was willing to work with though, he couldn't risk him getting outside and there being some fluke accident of some stray cat carrying another plague. Alec seemed surprised when the higher tone and almost babying voice came from Bane as he spoke to the kitten.

"You're so cute, I don't like you, I love you. I'm mad at you, though," Bane's tone had dropped so suddenly with the last statement as he looked at Alec, the kitten placed gently on the bed. "Cats are stupid expensive, you shouldn't have bought me one. There's a reason why I never got one."

"Look, I almost killed you like a month ago? So this is my final I'm sorry. Now you can't hold it over my head." 

It was Bane's turn to roll his eyes as he realized this was all just a guilt trip present...but he was still going to accept it. Within seconds, Bane had shifted forward to lean on his hand, a kiss planted against the corner of Alec's lips. Alec wasn't sure if it was intentional or a miscalculation of projection, but it caught him off guard either way and blue eyes could only stare at Bane as a questioning brow lifted.

"I hate you."

The words were playful in their own way, opposite of how they'd be spat by Alec when they'd first met, before Izzy had forced him to get to know the dealer outside of drunken one night stands. Bane sat back and gave a smug look, the kitten scooped up once more as he planted a kiss on his head as well while he settled back against the pillows.

"I hate you, too." Alec replied, sounding confused by the action and, for once, no conviction behind the words. Another pillow came his way and Alec grunted as this one made contact, his fingers curling around the material from where fell after it hit his stomach, blue eyes finally focusing on Bane once more as the other man spoke.

"Stop staring at me and help me name him."


	7. Perfringo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bane explains his backstory to Alec, and Alec decides they need to push forward with saving the city with him. They violate Alec's home office, then go back to being dicks to each other the next day. 
> 
> Something is different this time, though. They've come to realize how they're looking at each other differently, and neither know how to process it.
> 
> [Teeth by Five Seconds of Summer ](https://open.spotify.com/track/26wLOs3ZuHJa2Ihhx6QIE6?si=QphwjV5ISxmm1DJvOool2Q)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT'S ALIVE. The next chapter will be based off Raphael.
> 
> It won't take as long as this one did...I hope. I'm pretty sure. I love you guys.

The stiff hospital bed had been nothing but torture to Bane's back and when he was finally back into his own bed, it was like falling into a firm cloud. Jacob and Izzy had made sure to fill his fridge with everything he would have needed, getting him pillows and blankets despite his assurance that he could do it all himself, but they had spouted doctor's orders. It was three days before Alec was knocking on his door, bringing him more drinks per Izzy's order, and filling the shelves that were already overburdened by food. Jacob left hesitantly and with Bane's persistence that he was fine, taking his chances on being alone with Alec. 

"So... You want to explain the whole Largo thing?" Alec asked from his spot on the bottom right corner of Bane's bed, his legs crossed in front of him as he watched Bane's fingers, toying with small cat child's plush toy that Izzy had given to him.

"Not really, but I know you won't leave me alone until I do, right?" Bane mused, a small smile on his face as he finally looked up to Alec.

"I mean... yeah. You're kind of a big deal to us, and that's not me trying to inflate your ego, so don't even think about it."

"It's okay, Alec, you don't have to lie to me." Bane sighed out with a dismissive wave and a smile, though it faded as he realized he really would have to explain it if he wanted to keep some semblance of trust with Alec. Izzy was already being too wary around him and that in itself was enough to give his chest tinges of pain.

"My great, great grandfather was a mistake." Bane started as Alec opened his mouth to fight him on what he'd said previously. "Amber fucked around a lot, but her biggest mistake was fucking around with my great, great, great grandfather, Graverobber. I won't tell you his real name," Bane added as he saw Alec's eyes narrow in confusion. "She had gotten so much surgery that she had been told she'd likely never conceive, so she never cared about being careful. She also never cared about seeing a doctor after her father died and she took over GeneCo, and the doctor would have told her she was pregnant. Grandpa was a surprise, but luckily for him, I guess, she decided that her brothers were fuckups and she was going to have to carry on the line. I've also heard that she was also stubborn and wanted to prove to everyone that she was everything opposite what her father said she was."

Bane shifted, grabbing the glass of water nearby to take a sip from it, keeping it between his hands as he looked over to the nearby window, the looming building with the half broken GeneCo sign in the distance. 

"So she had him, she raised him, and she wrote in the will that GeneCo will never belong to anyone but a Largo. If we were all to fall, and she was positive that we wouldn't because they were greedy, power hungry dicks, then no one would have it and it was to immediately be shut down, per orders of the lawyers who would then be in power of it. My great, great grandfather took after her. Selfish, vain, quick to lash out rather than think rationally first, but somehow, someone loved him. Their kid followed suit, our line just getting more and more cruel as they went until they had my grandmother, Deliliah, who was, for some reason, completely opposite of them. All the stories I ever heard of her, she was sweet and kind, forward thinking and wanted to help people instead of just focusing on money. She talked her father into believing that she wanted to travel, which I guess she did, but really it was her escaping them. My grandmother told me she went from here to Milan, Milan to Sicily, Sicily to England and on and on. She met my grandfather in Indonesia and it took her years and her father on his deathbed to come back longer than a few days visit. By then my mother was fifteen and got a hard lesson in seeing how ugly the world could be in our family. Delilah told me before she died that everything was so different here that she was disgusted and hoped that she was never seen as selfish as them. Where she was the oldest, GeneCo went to her when her father handed it down, but she had her brother be in the office for her, she just handled financials and big decisions from back home. Still following along?"

Alec nodded and shifted, accepting a pillow when it was offered so he could lean against the wall beside him, comfortably settling down and seeming interested so far, which was a relief to Bane. When his phone chimed, he looked at the screen for a short moment and then turned off the sound, the screen soon after. "So if they went back to Indonesia, did everything go smoothly?" 

"No, it turned into a total shitshow. Her brother got greedy, wound up murdering their sister and tried to go behind my grandmothers back to overthrow her through bullshit lies given to the lawyers." Bane shrugged when Alec looked surprised, the simple response of 'Largo' an acceptable enough answer.

"My grandfather and mother stayed in Indonesia while my grandmother came back to handle everything. Everything started to really go downhill then, that's when a lot of the corruption got the best of my grandmother and family matters started really taking a toll. People were complaining about GeneCo, people were being murdered left and right, and my grandmother was desperately trying to fix everything all by herself. She'd had her brother arrested, she was trying to handle my great grandfather's Alzheimer's, then my great grandmother dying. My mother was pregnant with me when she, my grandfather, and her then-boyfriend, and the house staff they brought moved into the building you're all in. My grandparents tried holding the fort down, and my mother decided, watching them, that this wasn't what she wanted, and my father didn't either."

Bane took in a slow breath as he looked down to the water with a frown, tapping on the glass lightly with his fingers. Alec almost wanted to reach forward and comfort him even though he was unsure what it would be for, but before he could move, Bane offered him a bitter smile and continued on.

"So they gave me to the help when I was born, and told the family that I had died during childbirth, because that was what happened to the maids daughter, who she was training to take her place. They hid me from the family so that I wouldn't be corrupted by it, so I wouldn't have to deal with all the death and destruction and terrible shit people knew about my family and our past. My blood says I'm part of the Largo clan, but my papers said I was a Soh. My mother got pregnant again a three years later, but he was killed in an accident when he was 15, drunk driver on Christmas Eve. He was a big loss not just to them, but me. He knew about me, we were best friends."

Alec frowned, thinking of Izzy then, knowing how devastated he would be if he'd lost her. When they moved here and she started going out to clubs and hanging out in the alleys with the people that his father liked to describe as 'undesirables'. They were dangerous and Alec always worried about his little sister being out there with them, about what could happen to her. Bane was top of that list, and for weeks Alec had been put into a mental state by his father that Bane was that number one undesirable that had to be taken down despite all the other dealers. Bane was smart, he was quick and good at evading, he would be the hardest to get and that was why they needed to focus on him first. 'Power play', Alec had thought when he'd made the first city-wide announcement to Bane that he was after him. Things seemed so different now that he was hearing Bane's backstory, now that he was learning about his losses and the struggles that not only he but his family had gone through in trying to change their name.

"I'm sorry... I can't even begin to think of how terrible that must have felt. I don't want to. Izzy..."

"I don't want you to think of that. I'm sure at this point I may feel just as close to that were anything to happen to her, and nothing will. Not from any of my people, I promise." 

Both Alec and Bane were quiet for a moment, Bane studying Alec's face as he looked down at his hands, clearly talking about losing a sibling had really struck a nerve in him. It wasn't longer than a minute before Alec cleared his throat and lifted his head, his fingers fidgeting with the edge of the blanket beside him. "So... how did you come up with Bane? Why don't you go by Magnus?" 

"When I was 16, things were getting really rough with street gangs and people were getting especially... hateful towards the Largo's. My parents, the one's I was given to, and also my biological ones were getting anxious. They had my adoptive family change their names and released them from their work. My biological parents made sure that money still came in to take care of all of us, they'd all been basically like family in the end because they were together for decades. My second mother renamed herself Niida, my second father went by Daksa. My mother had named me Magnus before giving me to them and requested it stay like that. She believed I'd live up to it, I'd be the 'greatest'. Greatest at what, I'm not sure, but she told my second mother that she believed some day I would change the world. My second mother told me almost every day that she believed it too, that I had to be good and pure, and I had to help people, not hurt them. I can tell you one thing that I became great at, you know?"

Alec resisted the urge to take the pillow behind him to hit Bane directly in the face, wanting to wipe that wiggling eyebrow and flirty grin off his lips. He resisted. It took all of his willpower, but Alec resisted.

"I could literally see the struggle on your face." Bane pointed out with a laugh before finishing the water in the glass and putting it aside on the nightstand. 

"When the plague hit, it was rough. People dying left and right. Watching the police come through, killing every cat they found. They'd come door to door, they took the one I had for almost ten years and euthanized it right in front of me. My grandmother got sick from one of the affected cats outside and we lost her that summer. My mother went shortly after her. My father managed to avoid it, and I wish I could have said the same for my second parents, but the police had thought they were affected by the 'plague' too... I lost everyone. Really fast. It was a blessing and a curse, because I was alone, sick, and I didn't know what to do. Jacob had a friend who worked in a lab that thought they'd found the cure, but it was too risky to try it out, so no doctors would allow it. I had nothing to lose at that point, so I had them try it on me."

Bane moved the hair out of his face, exposing the cat eye shaped pupil, fingers brushing the hair back idly as he knew he didn't have to hide it from Alec.

"It worked, but I was far enough along that I still had a lot of side effects. This, whatever this is that I can do with my hands." They glowed a faint blue as Bane looked down at them, fingers curling and the glow growing brighter into what looked like flames before extinguishing.

"A lot of people got mutated by it. I saw some guy lift a car and throw it halfway across the block. I never thought I'd see a plague mask outside of a costume, and as a history lover, it was exciting to read about, but living it is... terrible." Alec said quietly, remembering how quickly his mother had ushered them from place to place until they settled in New York City, the first place to eradicate the issue. "How do you think it changes the Zydrate?"

Bane looked perplexed, his hands and shoulders lifting slightly in an 'I don't know' way.

"If I had access to a lab and scientists, I could probably tell you. But I don't and--"

"I can probably get you into ours. Let me see what we can do and maybe we'll figure out how your zydrate is different. I have a few conferences and debates to go to, so it may take me a week or so."

"You're really going for that leader position, huh? Going to let your parents talk you into it?" Bane frowned, thanks to a late night talk with Izzy, he knew it was something Alec didn't want to do at all. Presidency had died long ago, even mayors were a thing of the past, but each town always had _someone_ that was a leader. Someone that made the decisions and called the shots, and usually that was the person with the most money. Due to taking over GeneCo and the Largo's estate, all while bringing their own from their previous home, it was the Lightwood's.

"How else are we going to save the city? My father sure as fuck won't do it. He'll just ruin it. He'll run it right into the ground and get everyone killed on the way. He'd rather kill than talk things through." Alec sighed as he moved off the bed, draining the drink he'd brought with him. "Though, speaking of, I have to go and meet up with him and the others. Max is back from school, and our other brother, Jace, is visiting with his girlfriend, so we're having a 'Family dinner'." He said the last bit in air quotes and with a roll of his eyes.

"How domestic and cute of you, Alexander." Bane mused and watched Alec take the glass from beside him, disappearing into the kitchen and returning with it full.

"Don't call me Alexander, _Magnus_." Alec retorted as he put the glass down on the nightstand again, almost laughing at the loud gasp that came from Bane, his mouth forming an 'O'.

"WHAT did you just call m--"

"Don't get worked up, remember? Doctor's orders!" Alec chided as a smile crossed his face, waving as he backed towards the door.

"ALEC GET BACK HERE AND-"

\--

The wall rattled as Bane's back met it, a grunt coming from deep from within his chest. Two of six frames that all held different mix-up's of smiling Lightwood faces fell to the floor on impact, the glass shattering within their wooden confines. Naturally tan skin bruised red and purple as teeth tightened painfully at the junction between his shoulder and neck, Alec's hips pressing up harsh against Bane's ass as his fingers left bruises on Bane's hips. 

The dealer had been off the streets for a little over two months now, his most faithful and trusted taking over in helping those in the alley. Once Alec and the doctors had confirmed the man they withheld in the cell, an addicted user that once relied on Bane like a baby did its mother, had successfully overcome his addiction to the neon blue drug, they had begun bringing Bane the vials in larger amounts to test on others in their hold. Alec was desperate to get the addicts under control to get the city cleaned up, Robert was desperate (and unknowing of this operation) to get money flowing back into the GeneCo business, Jacob and Izzy were desperate to help anyone they were able to on the streets and off, and Bane didn't want to see anyone else he cared for die of overdoses or at the hands of the Repo men.

All of those desperate paled in comparison, currently, to the two within the Lightwood estate, locked away in Alec's home office. An office which, Bane had noted, was on its own floor of the high-rise building that they all resided in. Each member of the family with the exception of the youngest and the parents, who lived together, had their own floor as their 'apartment'. Excessive, but a bit impressive. 

Due to this excessive wealth and privacy, no one would hear their panting, the loud, wanton moans coming from Bane, or the pleasured groans from the one that had him pinned against the wall. A slick tongue trailed over the scar left behind from the surgery, Alec feeling a twinge of guilt for a split second, though the pressure around his cock and the way Bane's fingers pulled desperately at messy black locks wiped it away no more than a second later. With a turn and shuffle caused by the fitted black jeans bunched around Alec's thighs, a flex of strong arm muscles, Alec had lifted and pulled himself free from Bane much to the dismay of both parties. 

Bane was turned and moved forward, his chest pressed down against the desk in front of him. Ring adorned fingers barely had time to shove away the offending papers and pens in his face, mistakenly shoving what he thought was empty but was actually a half full cup of coffee off with them. Neither cared about the wet mess it made as it splattered across the floor because Alec was once again buried in Bane's ass and Bane's fingers had found the edge of the desk opposite of where he was bent. The focus was clear when one angled thrust had a guttural moan resounding off the walls that had yet to be assaulted by the feral, rough fuck taking place on the desk. 

The new heart pounded within Bane's chest as Alec picked up that pace he'd had once before, one of Alec's hands curled around Bane's right shoulder, his left tangling into the mess of a braid and giving a harsh yank back, Alec trying to coax those moans out any way he could. Icy blue eyes raked over the tattoo that filled Bane's back, the shapes identical and mirrored, the hand holding his shoulder firmly moving lower to the center of the mandala pattern to shove Bane down as Bane's arms shifted under him to prop himself up.

"Ah ah ah, stay down." Alec said lowly in panted breaths, a wolfish grin crossing his face as his hips snapped forward, his free hand at Bane's shoulder pulling Bane's body back, down and hard to meet it.

"Don't fucking st-ahhh....start now, Alec," Bane groaned, moving his arms yet again to try and prop himself up. 

Alec paused his movements, pulling out entirely from the tight heat he'd been so pleasantly sheathed within to deny pleasure while he grabbed Bane's forearms, yanking them roughly behind Bane's back so one hand could grip both wrists comfortably, keeping them where he wanted them. What Alec couldn't see from this position was the pleased grin on Bane's face, this rough hold something he ached for, something he had missed in the two months he'd been confined to his home or outside with 'limited adrenaline inducing actions'. It was something he'd never known he enjoyed until Alec because no one had played cat and mouse with him like this, and for once he wasn't the cat.

"What was that? I don't think you're in a position to be telling me what to do." Alec breathed out, his tip teasing and prodding before pressing slowly, fully, into him once again at such a slow pace he almost hated himself for doing it. The draw back was equally as torturous and it was at that moment Alec knew it was _not_ something he could keep up.

"You're a pain in my ass." 

Bane's words carried the grin that Alec could see so clearly in his mind, one that brought a smile to his own face. That in itself was something foreign that he'd come to find himself doing more often as Bane was recovering and both Alec, Izzy, and Jacob took turns bringing him what he needed. Spending time with Bane hadn't been on the agenda, usually Alec kept to a strict schedule, but he had found himself being late for meetings and appointments due to staying to learn more about Bane each time something came up. Alec also found himself telling Bane too much about himself as the cracks in his wall were found and Bane took a sledgehammer to them.

The legs of the desk gave a complaining creak and screeched on the wood floor as Alec snapped his hips forward, starting a pace that rivaled that of what they'd had at the wall. A shuddered 'Fuck' was muttered into the desk as Alec felt Bane's body nearly melted below him, Bane's head soon lowering with a moan accompanied a thud and followed with an 'OW, FUCK' as Bane's forehead dropped against the desk, eliciting a laugh from Alec as he kept moving. 

The pain didn't last long for Bane, Alec made sure to distract him plenty as one hand went down to wrap around Bane's cock, achingly hard and weeping with the precum that Alec's thumb was lucky enough to swipe. Bane's ass tightened around Alec, his arms aching as they struggled to get out of the hold and his body tried to decide whether to push back against Alec to meet those thrusts or to move forward into the hand that worked him from below their bodies. A flash of heat pitted low in Alec's stomach, all of his thoughts melting away as he began focusing on it, chasing that release that was always unlike the others he had while Bane had been holed away, and never with others (despite the attempt to go out and 'mingle' as Izzy had suggested,) but solely with his own hand. Alec let out a shuddering breath as he slowed his pace for just a moment, his chest heaving at their efforts, his and Bane's hands and bodies growing slick with sweat, making it difficult to keep a good grip. 

No, this wasn't what he wanted to see anymore. 

With one final torturous change in position, Bane was splayed out on the desk in front of him, one leg curled over Alec's shoulder and the other resting over the arm propping him into the perfect position. Once more Bane's fingers were curled around the edge above him, his body writhing on the desk mat that shifted with each squirm. A face that Alec had despised and hadn't wanted to see other than behind cell doors was, as of late, one he couldn't stop thinking about. There was no doubt about why, Alec was far from stupid, but he knew the reason was one that he wanted to avoid at all costs. Yet, here they were, at Alec's doing at that.

"Stay there," Bane blurted out suddenly as Alec had shifted forward, finding that spot once more that he liked so much. The spot that made Bane, the calm and collected one, the tight knot of a person that no one could loosen, unravel. It was like something snapped in Alec then, the selfish need to get that release his body screamed for mixing with the urge to break Bane. 

"Oh fuck!" Came the gasp from below as Alec exploited the bundle of nerves with ruthless thrusts. The tension and heat was the driving force behind Alec's movements, one that was closely mirrored by Bane's own, his knuckles white from gripping the desk edge.

"Touch yourself, I want to watch," The words were forced but hushed, almost drowned out by the sound of their bodies meeting, the slick skin on skin of two who couldn't deny a basic human carnal delight. 

A hum rumbled deep in Alec's chest as he watched one of Bane's hands compliantly lower to wrap around himself, the strokes moving quickly with their pace. It wouldn't last much longer as Alec would find, feeling the way Bane's legs tensed, tightening around where they were perched around him, his body writhing from the mixed pleasure. Bane could feel everything in him tensing, his body screaming for its release and after two months, he wasn't going to deny himself anything anymore, especially not with the perfect view of Alec in front of him, hungry eyes taking in every vulnerably exposed inch of him. There was no warning other than what his body could give Alec, that tension within him snapping like a wire drawn too tight as his back arched slightly off the desk, Alec's arm holding and supporting Bane as he came, a mess of cum painting Bane's chest as Alec's name flooded the room in a choked moan.

Alec let out a harsh breath at the sudden tightening around him but was quick to work into it, using that friction and the view of Bane in front of him to finish himself off, ignoring the brief and quiet groan of discomfort from Bane as Alec allowed himself to let go and lose the control he always had over himself. Bane's leg was slipped from over his arm to his shoulder as Alec's arm shifted to the desk, his body leaning forward and pressing closer to Bane's as he buried himself within him, two snaps of his hips finally bringing that relief that he so craved for too long now. The movements, once rough, erratic, now slowed to a stop, Alec's chest heaving as he used Bane's legs to lean against long enough to catch his breath before he straightened up with weak knees. Alec didn't realize his thumbs were rubbing the back of Bane's thighs as he pulled out, a small show of aftercare that he had never bothered to do before, though it seemed like Bane didn't realize it either even as shaking thighs dropped to the desk.

Bane's fingers ached as he released the desk, finally, the digits curling into his palms to stretch after a small flourish of his hand to get his wrist to crack, his eyes following Alec as he moved away from the trash, not caring to hide the condom like he normally did whenever they fucked somewhere that wasn't Bane's place, where the trash was handled by staff or dug through by alley lurkers. Bane didn't say anything about it this time, usually his smartass comment would come straight to mind and right out of his mouth without a second thought, instead focusing on grabbing a tissue from the box nearby and using it to clean the mess on his stomach and chest. 

"What time is the meeting with the lab tomorrow?" Bane inquired quietly as Alec pulled up his pants and zipped them up, scanning the room next for wherever he'd thrown Bane's clothing. 

"7:30." Alec moved to grab Bane's pants and shirt, as well as the bottle of still open and leaking lube that had been thrown aside when it hadn't been needed. Bane's brow lifted when the bottle was closed and cleaned off with another tissue as he got dressed, Alec storing the bottle in one of the desk drawers. He was looking forward to putting that to use again, and he could only wonder if Alec was, too.

"I'm going out with your sister until about 7, I'll meet up with you at my place then?" Bane asked as his fingers ran through his mess of hair, brushing the stray bits back and out of his face but not bothering to redo the loose braid. 

"Yeah, that sounds fine. My father and mother will be out of town tomorrow until Sunday, so we should be somewhat okay." Alec hummed as he watched Bane, his eyes briefly running over the bruised bite mark he'd left on Bane's neck as a small crooked grin began forming on his lips.

"What are you smiling about?" Bane's eyes narrowed suspiciously, one hand instinctively going to run over his neck and collarbone. "What?"

"Nothing." 

\---

"We need to change the chemical composition of it. It's addictive because it's mixed with an opioid, right? A huge dose of it, that's why they get so hooked on the high after surgery, and come to find us." The scientists to Bane's left and right nodded in confirmation as they looked over the structural formula on the paper in front of them that they had provided Bane with.

"How do you know all this?" Alec was across the table looking at Bane with a shocked look on his face, one that didn't get passed Bane, who could only assume that the Lightwood had underestimated his intelligence level.

"I may deal drugs, but I'm not a moron, Mr. Lightwood. I had schooling in chemistry and, just like any product a seller has, they should know what's in it."

The women looked at each other, the slight annoyance in Bane's voice on top of the known on and off feud between the two well known within laboratory walls of the institute. The two put their careers, even potentially their lives, at risk assisting the two. Alec had come to speak to them about someone wanting to create a zydrate that wasn't addictive, something they had been interested in almost immediately due to either having lost someone in their family to an overdose of the drug or to the Repo men. Once a plan had been set in motion, they all worked together to sneak Bane into the Institute, hurrying him into the lab where only they and the other scientists had secured badge access. Even Robert couldn't get in without one of them with him. 

"What's the opiate then?" Bane asked the two, the steely gaze softening as he looked to the two beside him, then back down to the paper as his eyes scanned over the hexagons on the sheet, following along the different components that made up zydrate. "Oxy..."

"Morphone." The raven-haired woman to his left finished. 

"Oxymorphone..." Bane repeated and looked over at Alec then, sliding the paper over to him even though he knew Alec wouldn't understand. "I'm going to need more zydrate, and you're going to have to get Izzy to bring it to me if the guards are watching you as much as you say they are. It's not just me you need to sneak around now, it's them and anyone else that helps, too." He said as he motioned to the women beside them.

"How do we find out how you change the Zydrate we give you?" Alec asked as he looked down at the paper, he would have no problems admitting he wasn't sure what it was outside of a basic High School level knowledge of chemistry.

"I'll have to change one and they'll have to compare the two to each other and see what's different. Normally this would be easy, you just remove the opiate, but if you want to keep going the way your surgeons work... They release people a few days later and boast about how you won't feel a thing. If you take the opiates out, with the level of surgery they're getting, you're going to have people in agony and in the hospital longer, or at home, unsupervised, with Zydrate. I'm assuming that's two things you don't want to happen."

Bane met Alec's gaze, surprisingly soft towards him before Alec seemed to catch himself and look to the scientists. 

"Is there another drug we can go to? The Zydrate they're getting on the streets, other than yours now," he motioned to Bane, "is just a designer drug the other dealers are getting from the leftovers in dead bodies. People aren't only getting high off something that's unstable, but they're running the risk of contracting something." Alec rubbed his temple, this whole situation was a headache. It was the biggest argument he had during his debates, since Fillitreux kept pushing that Zydrate was not the issue in the city, it was the family that offered it after surgeries. But if they could find out how Bane changed it... They could help everyone in the city.

"If they're already addicted, trying to talk them into a drug that they don't know and aren't already addicted to isn't going to be as appealing to them, and then you're just going to make it easier for people to come to dealers instead of getting it administered by your doctor's."

"I mean coming from a dealer it's ironic that you sound like it's a problem, but you know--"

"Are you seriously going to pick a fight with me when I've been helping you clean up the streets without brute force and using my fucking brain to help people instead of nightsticks? _Tasers_? Because if you want to go there, we can tot--"

"How about we stop getting ahead and we focus on getting the two compared?" The blonde to Bane's left interjected, since they wouldn't be able to get anywhere without figuring out the difference, first. The two scientists weren't really in the mood to deal with their arguing, not did they want to get in the middle of a fist fight.

Bane glowered at Alec before letting out a soft sigh and nodded in agreement as he turned to look at her, his eyes flicking down to her name tag. "I think that's a good idea, Helen. Do you mind if I...?" 

"Aline, can you get him one of the vials we made last night?" Helen asked the other scientist beside him, who smiled and nodded, moving to the small refrigerator on the other side of the room. 

"I'm actually kind of excited to see what you do, I've only seen one or two other people, personally, with a mutation like yours. Not your eye, but the ..." Aline trailed off as she looked pointedly to Bane's hands, handing him the blue vial and stepping back as if he needed a lot of space to make the change. "It's like....magic. It's amazing."

"Well hopefully it's not something that we can't recreate without it...I'm not going to live forever, unfortunately. Let's see if we can find out what's going on." Bane said as his fingers wrapped around the vial, the blue flames flickering along his wrist and traveling upwards towards his fingers.

Alec moved around the table slowly, not taking his eyes off the vial, as if he didn't believe this was all actually real. It seemed like some strange party trick, just the thought of people getting some strange magical powers due to a biological plague seeming absurd, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized- what did he actually know? Just because he hadn't seen something before didn't mean it didn't exist. 

Once the vial was handed back to Aline, who took it gingerly and almost hesitantly as if she were worried it would be hot, it had gone from a neon blue liquid to one more cerulean in nature. Helen moved closer to Aline, leaning in to look at it, her face in awe. 

"We'll..." She started, unable to take her eyes off of it for a moment until Aline nudged her. "We'll start working on this right now. We have about an hour before the others come back, but we'll let you know as soon as we can."

"You're positive we can trust them?" Bane asked once the double set of doors had closed behind them, his steps slowing as he heard the locks click, though Alec's urging on had him continuing on. It wasn't that he didn't want to trust them and he certainly wanted to trust Alec's judgement on this, but it was hard to when Alec's father was after his head and he had just exposed himself to more people.

"I'm sure. Izzy and I grew up with Aline, we got her this job. Helen's her wife, and she wouldn't betray Aline like that." Alec assured as he held up a hand as they approached a door. The all clear was given once Alec had peeked out into the hallway on the other side, though both jumped when Raphael's voice came from behind them.

"What were you two up to?"

"Where did you even come from?!" Alec wheezed, he had been absolutely certain there was no one on either end of the hall, and he hadn't heard any doors open or close when they came out of the lab wing.

"Aw, did I scare you guys?" Raphael's smile was predatory, like a wolf that had two sheep cornered. Bane knew better than to piss off Raphael, even if Izzy told him that he wouldn't hurt anyone she cared about. He was a Repo, he couldn't be fully trusted, and Bane's opinion on that would never change. The man murdered for his work, and Bane had lost too many to Raphael's kind.

"Don't you have anything better to do?" Alec said as he motioned to the envelope in Raphael's hand. "Looks like you have a job. You should go fucking do it instead of slacking off or-"

"Or you'll tell your mommy?" Raphael laughed and lifted the folder, shaking it. "Relax, Golden boy, I'm going. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone that your boyfriend was here. I'll get taken out just for not grabbing him now." 

Bane noticed that Alec had stepped partially in front of him, as if shielding him from Raphael, and part of him wanted to pull Alec back beside him so if there was any attempt at a fight, he wouldn't be hurt. Confusion stemmed from that thought, he knew that Alec would be able to handle a fight without any of his own assistance yet... He wanted to protect him. 

"I'm gonna go." Magnus muttered under his breath as he turned, his steps bringing him quickly down the hall until he reached one of the back exits into the alley behind the building. 

"Bane, wait, you're fine!" Alec called after Bane, only to quickly turn as his eyes narrowed at Raphael. "Seriously?!"

Raphael lifted a fisted hand, rubbing teasingly under his right eye as he backed up, then turned and walked away as the hand lifted in a one finger salute. He had a job to do and he was particularly giddy about this one. Hearts were always a favorite repossession of his, something about the sound of a ribcage breaking open nothing short of symphonic.


End file.
